Arts of Survival: Recasting Lives in African Cities

Accra - Lagos - Nairobi - New Orleans - Port au Prince

NEH Summer Institute for college and university teachers

Program Description

Our 2016 NEH Summer Institute, "Arts of Survival: Recasting Lives in African Cities" explores contemporary urban culture and arts in African and African diaspora cities--Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, New Orleans and Port-au-Prince. These cities share African roots but are distinctive because of the unique paths that subsequently shaped them: landscapes and histories; multiple languages; waves of immigrants who brought and continue to bring their labor, culture and creativity; and the sometimes tragic events, both “natural” (hurricanes and earthquakes) and man-made (legacies of colonialism and slavery, political violence, and negligence), that these cities have undergone. Our goal is to examine how art engages the political and social hierarchies embedded in these cities and often recasts marginal or precarious lives into lives that exceed their constraining structures.